FCC's Lake: FCC Not At War Over JSAs

The Federal Communications Commission’s new crackdown on joint sales agreements is not part of an agency effort to spur TV stations to participate in the incentive auction -- or so said Bill Lake, chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau.

“The FCC is not having a war with over the air broadcasters,” Lake said. He also said that while the FCC regularly granted new JSAs over the past decade, the agency also has regularly warned broadcasters that a crackdown might be coming.

In addition, he said that the spectrum that the FCC needs to make the incentive auction a success is mostly in larger markets, and that the about 130 existing JSAs are mostly in smaller markets.

“So there’s really a disconnect there,” Lake said. He said the FCC will entertain requests for both types of waivers but that ones based on programming independence face an uphill battle. “I frankly think it would be very difficult for someone to justify a waiver of that particular ilk,” he said.